Watch out tennis world, is your coach a professional or a professional fake?

Once again readers from around the world, I write on the topic of coaches and coaching quality. Do you know what you're getting yourself or your child into? Over the years, the tennis coach profession has, in many cases, been stereotyped as blonde haired, bronze tanned, misbehaving gigolo's often acting and coaching at less than professional standards. Well, times have changed, or have they? I have listed some potential "quotes" of what coaches have said and truly believe, along with reasons why these beliefs can affect us negatively, and potential questions to ask these coaches in order to help "weed out" poor teaching professionals.

"Tennis coaching. I do it part time. Maybe I will coach even more!"

Great, I love to have new coaches joining the sport and helping spread the sport of a lifetime! The more people who are interested in coaching, the better for us all. However, the problem arises when the part-time coach changes their attitude and intentions. There is no such person as a part-time medical doctor. What I mean to say is, in the medical profession, anyone who decides to practice medicine is allowed to do so only after they spend years receiving education and experience in their specific field. After full fledged doctors have completed their studies, they can then decide if they want to practice medicine on a part-time or full-time status. People who start dabbling in the coaching profession soon find out that they either love coaching the sport, and that there are financial rewards as a bonus, or they find that they can potentially make a lot of money. I am sad to say that, in the past, I have worked in an organization that chose to hire non-qualified coaches and called them professionals. These coaches were not involved in any of my programs due to their lack of certification, dedication and knowledge. However, there was one coach who, unfortunately, was allowed on staff in my program due to his personality, political connections and questionable playing background. I asked the heads of the organization why certain coaches were on staff. The explanation to me was because they, these specific coaches, could play the game well or had a great personality. It was plain to see that the bottom line was in the shape of dollar signs. My concern was for the people with whom they continually taught lessons. As far as I was concerned, these coaches were cheating the players out of their money, time and energies. Coaching for dollars is the bottom line for many of these coaches.

Questions to ask the coach:

1. Ask if the coach has been fully certified? How long ago was it?
2. Ask if the coach has attended any tennis conferences or tennis seminars outside of the organization? When was the last one?
3. Ask if he or she has another line of work? How much time is spent at this job?
4. What are the intentions for future coaching?
5. Ask if the coach has coached other players who have had the same ability as your child. What happened to them? Why did they leave?

"I have coached my entire life and do not need to learn anything new!"

Firstly, I will always give respect (without question) to any coach who has dedicated their life to coaching tennis! But, if I hear that same coach tell someone that because of that time spent on the court they do not need to learn anymore, than some of that respect is lost. Twenty years ago, automobile wheels were made of wood. Now they are made with various rubber composites. Doctors, no matter what their specialty, continue to upgrade their knowledge base. Watch out for the professional who is full of confidence and arrogance. Look for background information.

Questions to ask:

1. When was the last seminar or coaching conference you attended?
2. When was the last coaching certification course you participated in or audited?
3. I understand you played professionally, when was that? Has the game changed in comparison as to how you played? How has that experience assisted you in your coaching?
4. How do you continually keep up to speed with the tennis of the 90's?

"I played on the professional tour for two years and won a national title."

I have a huge problem with tennis players who have, after their playing days, decided to coach and immediately declare that they are "qualified to teach all types of players," just because they were past players on the professional tour, college tennis or won national competitions. Coaching players and being a player are completely different things.

Yes, there is a correlation but, in order for that so called high performance player to coach effectively, they are going to have to learn many areas of coaching. They do not realize that times have continued to change and that the closed stance forehand they learned and the progressions that accompanied them are completely out of date. Many coaching areas such as teaching progressions, corrections, styles of play, tactics, and energy systems continually have to be upgraded and we, as coaches and parents, need to make sure that coaches continue to grow. An old dog can learn new tricks... if he or she chooses!

Ask the questions:

1. What certification level are you?
2. How long have you taught tennis for?
3. Do you have any tennis goals?
4. Why did you stop playing competitive tennis? Then, why did you choose coaching?

   When asking a head professional:

5. Ask if you have achieved all that you desire in tennis? If yes, watch out, the end is near...
6. How do you keep yourself motivated? If the answer is hard to come by...money may be the hidden answer.
7. Ask many of the earlier questions listed. You could find some very interesting answers!

The sport sciences have closed the coaching gap between the veteran coach of 30 years and the young coach of 10 years experience. What I mean to say here is that because of the sport sciences of today, less experienced coaches are able to avoid many of the coaching mistakes of their predecessors. The result is that many coaches who are chronologically young are very effectively coaching players at all caliber of play. For those people who are reading this, just remember, you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.

Tennis is a big business

I do agree that tennis is a business, but it is a business that should be run professionally with the intention of educating and improving players' abilities. I do not mean to sound pessimistic about the state of affairs of our profession. I am quite aware that there are many top quality organizations, clubs and tennis consulting firms that are, without a doubt, truly professional! There are many governing tennis bodies around the world, such as U.S.T.A., I.T.F., Tennis Canada etc.., who are trying to offer educational/certification courses to tennis enthusiasts in order to improve coaching quality. I hope that you have read this article with open minds and will consider asking many of these questions to your coach or kid's tennis coach. To get the most honest answers, you may need to rephrase the wording of the questions as many tennis professionals have rather large egos. After all, you or your kids are spending your hard earned money, limited time and energy every time a lesson is taken. Go ahead and start your search for answers...

On a personal coaching note: I am very proud to announce the fact that Ms. Laura Ozolins, who I have coached for the past 7 years, has received a full tennis scholarship to Georgia Tech University. The university is one of the top U.S. schools for engineering and sciences. Since she was the age of ten, I have been Laura Ozolins' personal tennis coach. Many tennis players whom I have coached through the years have happily achieved athletic tennis scholarships, so this situation is not new to me at all. What is so special about this specific situation is the rare longevity of this coaching relationship. With so many players today constantly changing coaches and academies, I am very proud to have had the opportunity to see Laura grow. Through all the peaks and valleys we have traveled together, it is so rewarding for me to see one of her long term, personal goals achieved. I have seen her develop as a young girl, playing beginner tennis and slowly grow into a fine young lady with the ability of playing high performance tennis at a national/ international caliber. I hope that one day you will have the chance to experience this. It is rare and I will cherish it for the rest of my life!

Good luck Laura and let's go Yellow Jackets!

Lastly, readers I have been asked again to speak at some more tennis conferences in 1998. I will be presenting material from my best-selling book called ,"Kid's Book of Tennis..." which is being supported by the I.T.F., Tennis Canada, U.S.P.T.R., U.S.P.T.A., Scandinavian T. F. and more! I'd be more than happy to meet you in person and talk about tennis. Hope to see you at one of the conferences listed below:

U.S.P.T.A. - California, Ohio, New England, Northern California (tbc).
U.S.P.T.R. - International Tennis Symposium - Hilton Head, South Carolina Tennis Canada - British Columbia and Toronto

Finally, I am writing a future article on favorite tennis drills and would like to hear some of your favorite drills singles and doubles. Looking forward to hearing from you and thanks once again for all your email and faxes from around the world!

Have a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
All the best,

Reggie
reggie@tennisserver.com

This column is copyright 1997 by Reggie Vasquez Jr., all rights reserved.

Reggie Vasquez Jr. is one of Canada's leading tennis coaches for juniors. He is actively involved with Tennis Canada's grassroots player development. A frequent and enthusiastic speaker at tennis conferences, he is certified by the U.S.P.T.A., Tennis Canada and the U.S.P.T.R.. For almost 7 years he was a head coach for the Canadian Davis cup Captain's Academy at the Canada's National Tennis Center. He has been a Tennis Canada - National Youth Tennis Center Leader for over 8 years and is presently a head coach of an Elite Tennis Academy. He has experience working with juniors from the absolute beginner to the international caliber tennis player. Reggie is also a published author on junior tennis. His personal web site has additional information on his book, the Kids' Book of Tennis. The Kids' Book of Tennis can be ordered directly at a discount using this link to the Amazon.com online bookstore.

Questions and comments about these columns can be directed to Reggie by electronic mail at reggie@tennisserver.com.